Dear New Yorker,
We wanted to update you on some exciting developments on our work on education.
Just last week, the Gotham Gazette wrote about the City Council's cradle-to-career approach to education reform.
Now more than ever, we need to tap into the power of our communities to help improve our schools and make sure students are being given every opportunity to succeed.
As part of this new integrated approach, we will look at the specific challenges facing students and their families at every stage of their development. Then we will work together with community groups, city agencies, parents and teachers to ensure that our students are being given every opportunity to succeed.
In short, we'll work together to strengthen every aspect of a child's life - all with a focus on improving academic results and their long-term success.
Additionally, we're working with the New York state legislature to pass a bill that will make kindergarten mandatory for all NYC five-year-olds. Every year, thousands of students enter school for the first time in first grade - meaning that they have missed out on critical kindergarten experiences that may help them do better in school throughout their lives. We want to make sure that no child misses out on the opportunity to attend kindergarten ever again.
You can read more about our cradle-to-career approach and mandatory kindergarten in the Gotham Gazette at http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/searchlight/20120215/203/3683 .
Also, the NY Times' Schoolbook published an article about our work on reforming middle schools.
The City Council first brought attention to middle grades education in 2007, when we formed our Middle Schools Task Force. Since then we have continued to be a strong voice in both drawing attention to the issues students face between the ages of 11 and 14, and to actually improving low performing middle schools.
You can read more about these efforts in the NY Times at http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/02/10/middle-schools-start-a-new-chapter-on-reading .
We're very excited about these latest developments and look forward to working with you to help make sure every NYC student has access to a great education.
Sincerely,
Christine C. Quinn
Speaker
NYC Council
Robert Jackson
Chair, Education Committee
NYC Council
Stephen Levin
Council Member
NYC Council